By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Constitutional Court denied a request by the family of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu to overturn a High Court’s decision that he should be buried in his home country.
Lungu died in a hospital in Pretoria on June 5.
His burial has been the subject of a two-month dispute between Zambia’s government, which had planned a state funeral for him in Lusaka, and his family, who wanted him buried in South Africa.
The Pretoria High Court earlier this month concluded that Zambia is entitled to insist on a state funeral for the former president. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday upheld the decision.
Lungu’s widow and children blocked his body from being repatriated, saying he would not have wanted his political rival current Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema at his funeral.
The current row over Lungu’s burial underscores the tense relationship between him and his successor, which played out in life and continues even in death.
Hichilema defeated Lungu in a bitterly fought election in 2021, having lost to him in 2016. In 2017, Hichilema was sent to prison for four months on charges of treason after his convoy did not give way to Lungu’s presidential motorcade. The charges were dropped and Hichilema released after an international outcry.
After Hichilema took power, Lungu accused his successor of targeting him and in effect placing him under house arrest. In 2023, police stopped Lungu from going out for runs, saying they were “political activism” and needed to be approved beforehand to “ensure public safety”.
Lungu;s wife, Esther Lungu, and their children have faced various corruption charges. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing cars, which she was due to face in court this week.
Last year, Lungu attempted to return to frontline politics but was barred from running again for the presidency in next year’s election. Zambia’s constitutional court ruled that when Lungu took over as president after the incumbent, Michael Sata, died in 2015, the period until the 2016 election counted as a full first term in power.